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100 Years Later, Celebrating the Taxis That Saved Paris

The Renault AG1 taxi is referred to as the "Marne Taxi' after it brought troops to the front during that World War I battle.Credit
Peter Sigal/International The New York Times

PARIS — The echoes of the guns of August 1914 had barely subsided when France faced its first crisis of World War I. By early September, the German army had moved through Belgium and was within 30 miles of Paris; the French government was preparing to decamp to Bordeaux, and panic spread through the city.

The French were back on their heels. Gen. Joseph Joffre organized a counterattack, and by Sept. 6 his troops were fighting the Germans along the Marne River. With the outcome — and possibly the fate of France — in the balance, General Joffre called for reinforcements from Paris.

But the railways were clogged and no trucks were available, so the military commander of Paris, Gen. Joseph Gallieni, hailed the city’s taxi drivers. On the evening of Sept. 6, hundreds of cabs assembled at Les Invalides, the military hospital, and by morning a convoy of impossibly top-heavy Renault AG1s with tiny 1.2-liter 2-cylinder engines was puttering toward the front.

Photo

Introduced in 1917, the Renault FT Char Léger, or light tank, has a rotating turret and a rear engine, with the driver sitting in front. It is considered the first modern tank.Credit
Peter Sigal/The New York Times

The AG1 was the Checker cab of its day. Simple and sturdy, it became the standard Paris taxi in 1905. By 1907, there were 1,500 clattering over the cobblestones.

“It’s a small number, yes, but they made the difference,” said Aurélie Perreten, assistant director of the Musée de la Grande Guerre in Meaux, France. “That’s why we talk about the Miracle of the Marne.”

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This 4-wheel drive Latil military transporter had a top speed of 10 miles per hour and solid rubber tires.Credit
Peter Sigal/The New York Times

Yet while the French halted the Germans at the Marne, they were not strong enough to mount an offensive. Four years of trench warfare lay ahead, a stalemate that led to the development of the tank and poison gas.

A display at Retromobile included three Renault FT17 tanks, the first to use the modern configuration of swiveling turret, rear engine and front-mounted driver; a number of bone-shaking rubber-tired military trucks; and two “Marne taxis.”

A hundred years later, all of Europe is pausing to remember World War I. But the anniversary is perhaps felt most deeply in France, where much of the combat on the Western Front took place.

“For us, 2014 is really important,” Ms. Perreten said. “French people were affected in the soil, in their country. Everyone had a cousin, friend, son, grandfather who died.”

Correction: February 17, 2014
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified a World War I military transport truck. It is a Latil, not a Renault.

A version of this article appears in print on February 16, 2014, on Page AU4 of the New York edition with the headline: 100 Years Later, Celebrating the Taxis That Saved Paris. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe